


u$t\inate<i o? cost — 
TVovidin^ Por tVie creat'ioTi of 
^ vola-riteer retired list. 




jroTaJ-' 



COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS 
- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 



ESTIMATES OF COST FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF THE 
INTERIOR, AND FROM THE WAR DEPARTMENT 



ON 

H. R. 6288 

ALSO 

H. R. 16645 



PROVIDING FOR THE CREATION 
OF A VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST 



WASHINGTON 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1908 






MAR ? iy09 



CREATION OF A VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 



Department of the Interior, 

Washington, February 26, 1908. 
Hon. John A. T. Hull, 

Cliairman Committee on Military Affairs, 

House of Representatives. 
Dear Sir: In reply to your communication of February 20, 1908, 
in which you request a statement of the estimated cost of H. R. 6288, 
also H. R. 16645, provided they are enacted into law, you are advised 
that the attached copy of a letter from the Commissioner of Pensions 
gives the data on which such estimates are made, together with the 
estimated cost of such bills. You will notice in making the report 
use was made of the data contained in Senate Document No. 216, 
particularly as regards the number of surviving officers who might be 
affected by the bills, as such data is not a matter of record in the 
Bureau of Pensions. 

Very respectfvdly, 

James Rudolph Garfield, 

Secretary. 



Department of the Interior, 

Bureau of Pensions, 
Washington, February 25, 1908. 
The Secretary of the Interior. 

Sir: Having reference to the communication of the Hon. John 
A. T. Hull, chairman Committee on Military Affairs, House of Repre- 
sentatives, dated February 20, 1908, referred to the Bureau for report, 
I have the honor to state that in making this report use has been 
made of data contained in Senate Document No. 216, particularly as 
regards the number of surviving officers who might be affected by the 
bills presented for consideration, as such data is not a matter of record 
in this Bureau. 

The estimate of the number of officers affected by H. R. No. 6288 
is shown as 6,867, and the first year's cost of the bill is placed at 
$6,436,350. A carefid estimate of the amount of pension now paid 
to the officers affected is placed at $1,349,835, which, being deducted 
as provided in the bill, would leave the first year's cost $5,086,515. 
Maldng use of the same data as to those eligible, an estimate of the 
cost of retiring with pay certain officers and enlisted men of the civil 
war, under the provisions of H. R. 16645 as amended by the Com- 
mittee on Military Aff'airs, is herewith made, as follows: 

Number of civil-war pensioners February 1 , 1908 633, 386 

Number of these pensioners who served 18 months and over (estimated) 348, 362 

Number of officers pensioned, to be deducted 6, 867 

Total number of enlisted men eligible to provisions of the bill 341, 495 

3 



CREATION OF A VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 



Act under which pensioned. 



General law 

Act June 27, 1890. 
Act Feb. 6, 1907 . . 



Total. 



6,867 officers at $600 per annum . 
Deduct estimated pensions 



Total. 



Number 
of pen- 
sioners. 



78, 54.3 
102, 449 
KiO, 503 



Present T„„rp„„p^ j Total in- 
average rSndeJ crease of 
rate per *'^^„, ^"^ pensions 
month. "'"• under bill. 



$20 00 
12.00 
14.17 



$10.00 $9,425,160 
18.00 22,128.984 
15.83 I 30,489,150 



62,043.294 



4,120,200 
1,349,835 



2, 770, 365 



The communication from the Hon. John A. T. Hull and the papers 
submitted to the Bureau for consideration are herewith respectfully 
returned. 

Very respectful!}^, V. Warner, 

Commissioner. 



Committee on AIilitary Affairs, 
House of Representatives, United States, 

Washington, D. C, February 20, 1908. 
My Dear Sir: Inclosed herewith please find H. R. 6288, also H. R. 
16645, providing for creating a volunteer retired list. The Com- 
mittee on Military Afiairs have adopted certain amendments to these 
bills wliich are noted on the copies herein inclosed and desire such 
information as you can give relating to the proposed legislation, 
together with the most accurate estimate obtainable as to the cost 
of each of these bills providing they are enacted into law. 

Please have the kindness to make your report on this matter at the 
earliest date wliich the business of your office will allow. 
Very respectfully, 

J. A. T. Hull, 
Chairrnan CoTnmittee on Military Affairs, 

House of Rejyresentatives. 
Hon. Secretary of War, 
I Washington, D. C. 

[Firstlindorsement.] 

' War Department, 

; The Adjutant-General's Office, 

Washington, February 28, 1908, 
Respectfully returned to the honorable the Secretary of War, with 
estimates of the probable numbers of beneficiaries under, and the 
probable cost of, the bills H. R. 6288 and 16645, as amended by the 
Committee on Military Afiairs, to establish a volunteer retired list, 
if enacted into law. The copies of those bills received with this com- 
munication are returned herewith, 

F. C. AiNSWORTH, 

^ ^ ^ The Adjutant-General. 



CREATION OF A VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 5 

[Second indorsement.] 

War Department, Fehruary 29, 1908. 
Respectfully returned to the chairman Committee on Military 
Affairs, House of Representatives, inviting attention to the preceding 
indorsement hereon and to the accompanying estimates referred to. 

Robert Shaw Oliver, 

Acting Secretary -of War. 

[Memorandum relative to the probable numljer of beneficiaries under, and the probable cost of, a bill 
(H. R. 6288), as amended liy the Committee on Military Affairs, to create in the War Department a 

• roll to beloiow-n as the volunteer retired list, to authorize placing thereon with retired pay certain 
surviving officers of the United States Vohmteer Army, Navy, and marines of the civil war, and for 

. othei purposes.] 

The volunteer retired list proposed to be created by the accom- 
panying bill, (H. R. 6288, 60th Cong., 1st sess.), as amended by the 
Committee on Military Affairs, is to include each surviving officer 
of the Volunteer Army in the civil war who served with credit as an 
officer or an enlisted man not less than eighteen months in the field 
with troops between April 15, 1861, and July 15, 1865, who was hon- 
orably discharged and who does not belong to the Regular Army or 
has not heretofore been retired, pro\aded that an officer who resigned 
or was discharged because of wounds received in battle, if otherwise 
cjualified, shall be entitled to retirement without reference to the 
length of liis ser\T.ce in the Volunteer Army. The bill proposes that 
the names shall be entered upon the list as of the liighest rank held 
in the Volunteer Army, and that the rates of payment shall be "one- 
half pay at the age of 64 years, and three-fourths pay at the age of 
70 years," provided that the retired pay of any officer shall not 
exceed one-half the full pay of a captain of cavalry of the Regular 
Army. The provisions and limitations of the bill under consideration 
are also extended so as to include volunteer officers of the Navy and 
marines. 

To obtain a basis for an estimate of the probable number of bene- 
ficiaries under, and the probable cost of, the proposed legislation in 
so far as it relates to former officers of the Volunteer Army, it will be 
necessary to ascertain not only the whole number of volunteer com- 
missioned officers in service during the civil war, but also the number 
of those officers who served with credit not less than eighteen months, 
or who were discharged before serving eighteen months because of 
wounds received in battle, antl the ages of those officers; also the 
number who subsecjuently served in and were retired from the Regu- 
lar Army. No compilation from which such data can be obtained 
has ever been made by the War Department, and to make such a 
compilation now would require an extended examination of the 
record of each one of the thousands of volunteer officers in service 
during that war, for the purpose of determining his age, whether he 
served with credit for eighteen months or more and was honorably 
discharged, or resigned or was discharged before serving eighteen 
months because of wounds received in battle, and whether he subse- 
quently served in and was retired from the Regular Army. Such an 
extended compilation would require years for its completion, and 
would necessitate a considerable increase in the clerical force to pre- 
vent interference with the current work of the office. 

Even a reasonably accurate estimate of the whole number of volun- 
teer officers in service during the civil w^ar can not be made without 



6 CREATION OF A VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 

an examination of the rolls and other records of more than 2,000 
regimental, and a considerable number of smaller independent, organ- 
izations that were in the service during the civil war. 

As was indicated in an indorsement, dated January 22, 1907, by 
this office on a request of the Committee on Military Affairs of the 
House of Representatives for an estimate on a somewhat similar bill 
(H. R. 24544) creating a volunteer retired list, the data available, 
without the extended examination of the records before referred to, 
are insufficient to serve as a basis for a reasonably accurate estimate 
of the probable cost of £he proposed legislation. It is believed, how- 
ever, that sufficient information is at hand to enable a calculation to 
be made that will be much more reliable than a loose estimate or a 
wild guess, and that will establish at least a minimum probable cost 
during the first year of operation of the bill under consideration if 
enacted into law. 

It has been estimated by this office that there were approximately 
125,000 commissioned officers in service in the Volunteer Army dur- 
ing the civil war. This office has no data with regard to the number 
of volunteer officers of the Navy and marines in service during that 
war; and as the number of those officers must have been compara- 
tively small, they are not included in this estimate. 

Because no data concerning the ages of officers are available, the 
probable number of survivors can not be estimated satisfactorily. 
From an estimate made by this office in 1905, a printed copy of which 
accompanies this memorandum, it appears that a little more than 31 
per cent of the whole number of individual officers and enlisted men 
m service in the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps during the civil war 
will be surviving on June 30, 1908. The commissioned officers in 
service were, undoubtedly, as a rule, somewhat older than the enlisted 
men, and consequently the number of surviving officers is undoubtedly 
relatively less than the number of surviving enlisted men. Taking 
that fact into consideration, it does not seem unreasonable to assume 
that about 25 per cent of the volunteer commissioned officers of the 
Army, or about 31,250, will be surviving on June 30, 1908. 

A printed letter, addressed to the Secretary of the Interior by tiie 
Commissioner of Pensions under date of January 26, 1893, contains 
(p. 13) a table showing the number of months of service of a consid- 
erable number of pensioners. It appears from that table that of 
473,867 invalid pensioners 199,824, or 42 per cent, had less than 
eighteen months' service, and that the remaining 58 per cent had 
from eighteen to sixty-five months' service. By reference to the 
credits allowed by the War Department for men furnished by the 
several States during the civil war it is found, after making (hie allow- 
ance for those who were enlisted for a longer period than eighteen 
months at a date so near the close of the war that the total term of 
their service could not have exceeded that period, that 36 per cent 
of them were enlisted for, or could have served prior to July 15, 1865, 
for a period less than eighteen months, while the remainder (64 per 
cent) enlisted for and had an opportunity to serve for a period of 
eighteen months or longer. 

It is true that some of the men who enlisted for short terms may 
have enlisted, and probably did enlist, subsequently in other organi- 
zations so as to bring their total service beyond the eighteen-months 
limit. But, on the other hand, it is certain that some of the men 



CREATION OF A VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 7 

who enlisted for two and three years were separated from the service 
otherwise than because of wounds received in battle before having 
served eighteen months; and, consequently, for the sake of com- 
parison with the Pension Office figures before quoted, it seems rea- 
sonable to disregard these two factors. Taking into consideration 
the 58 per cent shown by the Pension Office statistics and the 64 
per cent shown by the credit statistics, it seems reasonable to assume 
that at least 61 per cent of the whole number of individuals in service 
during the civil war had at least eighteen months' service, or were 
discharged for wounds received in battle before having served that 
length of time. Some few of these men must have served subse- 
quently in the Regular Army and have been retired therefrom, but 
tne number of such men must have been comparatively small, and it 
is beheved that a decrease of 1 in the percentage shown above will 
be sufficient to cover all such cases. If 60 per cent of the officers 
and enhsted men in service during the civil war had the amount of 
service required of commissioned officers to entitle them to the benefits 
of the proposed legislation, it does not seem unreasonable to assume 
that 60 per cent of the whole number of surviving officers (31,250), 
or (18,750), will be entitled, sooner or later, to those benefits. 

From the data used in compiling the estimate of the number of sur- 
vivors of the civil war, before referred to, it is found that, on June 30, 
1908, about 7 per cent of those survivors will be under 64 years of age, 
about 62 per cent between 64 and 69, and about 31 per cent 70 years of 
age and over. In view of the relatively more advanced ages of the 
officers, as compared with the enlisted men, it is believed that some 
modification of those percentages must be made in order to apply them 
to the number of officers who are likely to be beneficiaries under the pro- 
posed legislation; and it may be assumed, therefore, for the purpose of 
this estimate, that 4 per cent (or 750) of the surviving officers who had 
the requisite amount of service are under 64 years of age, and are, con- 
sequently, too young to be entitled to those benefits at the present 
time; that 63 per cent of them (or 11,813) are old enough to be en- 
titled to half pay, and that 33 per cent of them (or 6,187) are old 
enough to be entitled to three-fourths pay. The bill, however, limits 
the maximum amount of the retired pay of any officer on the volun- 
teer retired list to an amount not exceeding "one-half the full i^ay of a 
captain of cavalry of the Regular Army," or .| 1,000 a year. ()ne-half 
the pay of a second lieutenant of infantry is $700 a year, and three- 
fourths of the pay of an officer of that grade is $1,050 a year. As the 
bill under consideration provides that the name of each officer entered 
on the volunteer list "shall be entered as of the highest rank held by 
him while serving in said Volunteer Army," it is not unlikely that most 
of the beneficiaries will be entitled to the maximum amount of pay, 
because the number of surviving volunteer officers who served for 
eighteen months and who did not reach the grade of captain at some 
time during their service must be relatively small. For the purposes 
of this estimate, however, it is assumed that 50 per cent of the sur- 
viving officers who are under 70 years of age and who served eighteen 
months did not reach the grade of captain, and that, consequently, 
they will not be entitled to the maximum rate of pay allowed under 
the pending bill. 

On the basis of the foregoing data, it is estimated that the volunteer 
retired Hst proposed to be created by the bill under consideration 



b .CREATION OF A VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 

will require the expenditure of at least S16,000,000 during the first 
year of its establishment, if established during the current year. 
During subsequent years the total amount of the expenditure on 
that account will be reduced from time to time by deaths of men 
whose names are on the list, but, at the same time, it will also be 
increased by advancing age bringing others within the Ihnitations of 
the list who are now under 64 years of age and increasing the rate of 
pay of those on the list when they reach the age of 70 years. 

Section 3 of the bill under consideration requires that each person 
who shall receive pay thereunder shall relinquish all his right and 
claim to pension fi'om the United States, and, consequently, some 
reduction should be made in the foregoing estimate in order to make 
it show the probable expense to the Government of the pending bill 
if enacted into a law. It appears from the report of the Commissioner 
of Pensions for 1907 that the invalid pensioners on the rolls because 
of civil-war service receive an average pension of $158.52 a year. 
The officers are not separately shown in that report, but, even if the 
average rate for officers is somewhat larger than that for all invalid 
pensioners, the excesss in the case of officers is likely to be corrected 
by the fact that some of the officers who will be entitled to the benefits 
of the pending legislation are not on the pension roll at all, and it 
appears reasonable, therefore, to accept, for the purpose of this esti- 
mate, the average rate of all pensioners as the average rate in the 
cases of officers. Under that assumption, it appears that, because 
of the provisions of this bill before refeiTed to, the pension roll is 
likely to be reduced about .$2,850,000. 

It appears, therefore, that the minimum total cost to the United 
States of the volunteer retired list proposed to be created by the 
accompanying bill during the first year of its operation will exceed 
$13,000,000. 

Respectfully submitted. 

F. C. AiNSWOETH, 

The Adjutant-General. 
War Department, 

The Adjutant-General's Office, 

February 28, 1908. 

[Memorandiun reL'itive to the, probable number of beneficiaries under, and the probable cost of, a bill 
(H. R. 16645), as amended by the Committee on Military Affairs, to create in the War Department a 
roll to be known as the volunteer retired list, to authorize placing thereon, with retired pay, certain 
surviving ofTicers and enlisted men of the United Spates Volunteer Army, Navy, and marines of the 
civil war, and for other purposes.] 

The volunteer retired list proposed to be created by the accompany- 
ing bill (H. R. 16645, 60th Cong., 1st sess.), as amended bv the Com- 
mittee on Militar}^ Affairs, is to include each surviving officer and 
enlisted man of the Volunteer Army in the civil war who serA^ed with 
credit as an officer or enlisted man not less than eighteen months 
in the field with troops between April 15, 1861, and July 15, 1865, 
who was honorably discharged and who does not now belong to the 
Regular Army or has not heretofore been retired, provided that an 
officer or enlisted man who resigned or was discharged because of 
wounds received in battle, if otherwise cpialified, shall be eh titled 
to retirement without reference to the length of his service in the 
Volunteer Army. 

The bill })roposes that the names shall be entered upon the list as of 
the highest rank held in the Volunteer Army, either as an officer or 



CREATION OF A VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 9 

an enlisted man, and that the rates of payment shall be one-third 
pay for the commissioned officers and $30 a month for the enlisted 
men, provided that the retired pay of any officer shall not exceed 
one-third the initial pay of a captain of infantry in the Regular Army. 
The provisions and limitations of the bill under consideration are 
also extended so as to include volunteer officers of the Navy and 
Marine Corps. 

To o])tain a basis for an estimate of the probable number of bene- 
ficiaries under, and the probable cost of, the proposed legislation 
it will be necessary to ascertain separately the number of individual 
officers and enlisted men who served with credit not less than eighteen 
months, or who were discharged before serving eighteen months 
because of wounds received in battle, and the number who sub- 
sequently served in and were retired from the Regular Army. No 
compilation from which such data can be obtained has ever been 
made by the War Department, and to make such a compilation now 
would require an extended examination of the record of each one 
of the many thousands of volunteers in service during that war for 
the purpose of determining whether he served with credit for eighteen 
months or more and was honorably discharged, or resigned, or was 
discharged before serving eighteen months because of wounds re- 
ceived in battle, and whether he subsequently served in and was 
retired from the Regular Army. Such an extended compilation 
would require years for its completion and would necessitate a con- 
siderable increase in the clerical force to prevent interference with 
the current work of the office. 

It is believed, however, that sufficient information is at hand to 
enable a calcidation to be made that will be much more reliable than 
a loose estimate or a wild guess and that will establish at least a 
minimum probable cost during the first year of operation of the bill 
under consideration, if enacted into law. 

An estimate of the number of survivors of the civil war in 1S90 and 
■ at various periods thereafter was prepared by the Record and Pension 
Office in March, 1890, at the request of the chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Invalid Pensions, House of Representatives, for use in the 
consideration of the various proposed measures which culminated in 
the pension act approved June 27, 1890. That estimate was reviewed 
in April, 1896, and again in 1905. From the printed copy of that 
estimate accompanying this memorandum, it will be seen that the 
probable total number of survivors of the civil war (excluding 
^deserters), on June 30, 1908, will be 705,197, or a httle more than 31 
per cent of the whole number of individual officers and enlisted men 
in service in the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps during that war. 

Having in inind the fact that the commissioned officers in service 
were no doubt, as a rule, somewhat older than the enlisted men, and 
that, consequently, the number of surviving officers is undoubtedly 
relatively less than the number of surviving enlisted men, it is esti- 
mated that of the 705,197 surviving officers and enlisted men of the 
Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, 31,250 were commissioned officers 
in the Army and 673,947 were enlisted men in the Army, Navy, and 
Marine Corps. As this office has no data with regard to the number 
of volunteer officers of the Navy and Marine Corps and as that num- 
ber must have been comparatively small, they are not considered as 
officers in this estimate. 



10 CREATION OF A VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 

A printed letter, addressed to the Secretary of the Interior by the 
Commissioner of Pensions under date of January 26, 1893, contains 
(p. 13) a table showing the number of months of service of a consider- 
able number of pensioners. It appears from that table that of 
473,867 invalid pensioners 199,824, or 42 per cent, had less than 
eighteen months' service and that the remaining 58 per cent had 
from eighteen to sixty-five months' service. By reference to the 
credits allowed by the War Department for men furnished by the 
several States during the civil war, it is found, after making due 
allowance for those who were enhsted for a longer period than eighteen 
months at a date so near the close of the war that the total term of 
their service could not have exceeded that period, that 36 per cent of 
them were enlisted for, or could have served prior to July 15, 1865, for 
a period less than eighteen months, while the remainder (64 per 
cent) enhsted for and had an opportunity to serve for a period of 
eighteen months or longer. It is true that some of the men who 
enlisted for short terms may have enlisted, and probably did enlist, 
subsequently in other organizations so as to bring their total service 
beyond the eighteen months' limit. But, on the other hand, it is cer- 
tain that some of the men who enlisted for two and three years were 
separated from the service otherwise than because of wounds received 
in battle before having served eighteen months; and, consequently, 
for the sake of comparison with the Pension Office figures before 
quoted, it seems reasonable to disregard these two factors. Taking 
into consideration the 58 per cent shown by the Pension Office sta- 
tistics and the 64 per cent shown by the credit statistics, it seems 
reasonable to assume that at least 61 per cent of the whole number of 
individuals in service during the civil war had at least eighteen months' 
service, or were discharged for wounds received in battle before having 
served that length of time. 

Some few of these men must have served subsequently in the Regu- 
lar Army and have been retired therefrom, but the number of such 
men must have been comparatively small, and it is believed that a 
decrease of 1 in the percentage shown above will be sufficient to cover 
all such cases. Assuming, therefore, that 60 per cent of the survivors 
had a sufficient length of service to entitle them to the benefits of the 
proposed legislation, it is found that the beneficiaries under that 
legislation will probably number 18,750 officers and 404,368 enlisted 
men during the first year of operation of the bill under consideration 
if enacted into law. 

The pending bill limits the maximum amount of the retired pay 
of any officers on the volunteer retired list to an amount not exceed-* 
ing ''one-third the initial pay of a captain of infantry in the Regu- 
lar Army" or $600 a year. The pay on the proposed volimteer 
retired list of officers who ^\dll not be entitled to receive the maximum 
pay before referred to ranges from S466.67 a year for a second lieu- 
tenant, not mounted, to $533.33 a year for a first lieutenant, mounted, 
all officers of higher grade being entitled to the maximum pay allowed 
imder the bill. It is not unlikely that most of the commissioned 
officers who will be beneficiaries will be entitled to the maximum 
amoimt of pay, because the number of surviving volunteer officers 
who served eighteen months and who did not reach the grade of 
captain at some time during their service must be relatively small. 
For the purpose of this estimate, however, it is assumed that 50 per 



CREATION OF A VOLUNTEER RETIRED LIST. 11 

cent of the surviving officers who served eighteen months did not 
reach the grade of captain and that, consequently, they will not be 
entitled to the maximum amomit of pay allowed under the pending 
bill. 

On the basis of the foregoing data it is estimated that the volun- 
teer retired list proposed to be created by the bill under considera- 
tion will require the expenditure of at least $10,000,000 for commis- 
sioned officers and at least $145,000,000 for enlisted men during the 
first year of its establishment, if established during the current year. 
During subsequent years, of course, the amount of the expenditure 
on that account will be reduced from time to time by reason of deaths 
of men whose names are on that list. That reduction will probably 
be at about the same rate from year to year as the reduction in the 
number of survivors shown in the table on page 6 of the accom- 
panying estimate with regard to the probable number of civil war 
survivors. 

Section 3 of the bill under consideration provides that each person 
who shall receive pay thereunder shall relinquish all his right and 
claim to pension from the United States, and, consequently, some 
reduction should be made in the foregoing estimate in order to make 
it show the probable expense to the Government of the pending bill, 
if enacted into a law. It appears from the report of the Commissioner 
of Pensions for 1907 that the invalid pensioners on the rolls because 
of civil war service receive an average pension of $158.52 a year. 
Assuming that all of the 423,118 probable beneficiaries under the 
pending legislation are on the pension roll, which is not likely to be 
a fact, and that the average rate of their pensions is the same as the 
average rate of all invalid pensioners, it is found that the total 
amount of their pensions is a little over $67,000,000 a year. 

Deducting from the estimated cost of the volunteer retired list 
before shown the total amount of pensions of the men who are 
entitled to its provisions, it is found that the minimum total cost to 
the United States of the volunteer retired list proposed to be created 
by the accompanying bill, during the first year of its operation, will 
exceed $88,000,000. 

Respectfully submitted. 

F. C. AiNSWORTH, 

The Adjutant-General. 
War Department, 

The Adjutant-General's Ob^fice, 

Fehruarij 28, 1908. ~ 



